Each week leading up to the announcement of the NCAA Tournament field on Selection Sunday, March 12, Andy Baggot will take a look at Wisconsin's potential tournament regional destinations.
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BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin men's basketball team has stumbled in the eyes of NCAA tournament bracket analysts, which isn't a surprise given that it's lost four of its last five games.
The 22nd-ranked Badgers suffered Big Ten Conference setbacks at Ohio State and Michigan State last week, outcomes that dropped them out of a share of first place heading into the final week of the regular season.
The decisions also meant that UW, seeking its 19th-consecutive national tournament berth, fell at least a line in terms of projected seeding for the 68-team field.
Most bracket forecasts had the Badgers (22-7 overall) as a fifth seed last week.
Now, with home games looming vs. Iowa on Thursday and Minnesota on Sunday, Wisconsin is typically slotted as a sixth seed.
That's how Shelby Mast of USA Today currently has it outlined. UW would be assigned to the East regional where it would open on March 16 with Seton Hall in Salt Lake City.
According to Joe Lunardi of ESPN, Wisconsin will be the sixth seed in the East regional where it will play California on March 16 in Orlando, Florida.
Jerry Palm of CBS Sports also has the Badgers as a sixth seed, facing Providence in its South regional opener on March 16. The good news is that the first-round game is slated for the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
Wisconsin still has time to recapture some of that lost ground. Minnesota (Sunday's opponent) is moving up the charts — some bracket forecasters have the Gophers ahead of the UW on the seed line — and there's the matter of the Big Ten tournament that begins March 8 in Washington, D.C.
By most bracket accounts, the Big Ten will qualify six other teams for the NCAA field: Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern and Purdue.
With one week left in the regular season, the Badgers (11-5) are in second place, one and a half games behind Purdue (13-4). Maryland, Michigan State and Minnesota are tied for third at 10-6.
The four NCAA regional sites are San Jose, California, Kansas City, Missouri, Memphis, Tennessee and New York City. They will be staged March 23 to 26.
The Final Four will be held in Phoenix, Arizona, on April 1 and 3.
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Badgers' Bracketology:
